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/dev/null/nethack tournament
To link to this page, use /dev/null/nethack tournament to get around the subpages feature of MediaWiki The /dev/null/nethack tournament, also known as the devnull tournament, is the second longest running gaming tournament on the Internet, having run every November since 1999.The first is Myth World Cup which began in 1998. The tournament's main website is at http://nethack.devnull.net/. It runs from midnight Pacific Time (PDT with the new extended Daylight Savings Time in the USA), 1 November (Halloween night) until midnight PT, 1 December. During this time, players compete for a wide range of trophies ranging from simple stars for reaching in-game goals shy of ascension to trophies for impressive multi-ascension feats. The competition is in vanilla nethack, with custom patches applied to provide a new optional "challenge" each year. The old challenges (going back to 2005) are all available. The new challenge's identity is kept secret to make things more interesting for the players. 2009 The 2009 tournament started on November 1, 2009 and finished on November 30. Nine servers (including the development server) were available for players to use, spanning Europe, North America and Australia. Due to problems with Kingdom of Loathing's user interface updates, the related Challenge was unavailable. 2008 The 2008 tournament is now complete. * Check out the results. * Register to compete next year. Challenges Starting in 2005, the tournament added optional challenges to the game. Each year has added a new challenge, designated the Unknown Challenge until the completion of that year's tournament, and preserved the prior challenges. Some challenges are entirely internal to NetHack, and others require players to achieve a goal in another game. Challenges are triggered by some action within NetHack. Upon the trigger, you may either accept the challenge, decline it for the current game, or ignore it permanently. If you accept, you are bound by the rules of the challenge until you complete it or choose to permanently ignore it via the tournament website. Challenges make NetHack harder in some way associated with the trigger until they are completed. The tournament web site distributes a patch that adds the challenges to the game, so that you may practice at home (or spoil the challenges). The current tournament patch as well as the server kit that they use are available for download at http://nethack.devnull.net/software/index.shtml#patch. Trophies The Tournament also awards trophies for all kinds of achievements within the game, ranging from the coveted "Best of 13" to the "Plastic Star". There are six categories of trophies: Grand, Major, Challenge, Minor, Recognition and Miscellaneous. Grand The "Grand" trophy used to be "Highest Score" until 2004, when it was changed to "Best of 13". It is the sole trophy in its category, and one of the most coveted. * Best of 13: Awarded to the player with most ascensions in 13 consecutive games, with no multiple ascension of the same race/role/alignment/gender combination. Major The "Major" trophies recognise a wide variety of NetHack skills. * Most Ascensions: Awarded to the player with most ascensions during the Tournament, with no regard to character repetition. * Fastest Ascension: Gametime: Awarded to the player who ascends in the smallest amount of game turns. * Fastest Ascension: Realtime: Awarded to the player who ascends in the shortest amount of real time. * Lowest Scored Ascension: Awarded to the player who ascends with the smallest score. * Best Behaved Ascension: Awarded to the player who ascends with the largest amount of conducts intact. * First Ascension: Awarded to the player who ascends first in the Tournament. * Most Unique Deaths: Awarded to the player who attains the largest variety of deaths. * Highest Scored Ascension: Awarded to the player who ascends with the highest score (duh). Challenge The "Challenge" trophies are awarded to those who complete the various Tournament challenges outlined above. Those who complete them first receive particular recognition. Minor "Minor" trophies include all trophies awarded for the highest score for a particular role. Recognition "Recognition" trophies are awarded for various milestones within the Tournament, ranging from impressive ascension combos to reaching some fixed points within the game. All of the multi-ascension combos have an "enhanced" version, which can be obtained by completing all the games meeting the criteria for obtaining the trophy consecutively, with no games that are not eligible for the prize in between. Said version is called "foo with bells on". * The Full Monty: Awarded to all players who ascend at least one game from each gender, each role, each race, each alignment and each conduct intact (of course, not within one single game). As of 2009, three players achieved this trophy: Marvin (with bells on) in 2007, while maud and nuslayer achieved it in 2009, both without bells. * The Grand Slam: Awarded to all players who ascend at least one game from each gender, each role, each race and each alignment (not considering conducts). * The Hat Trick: Awarded to all players who ascend at least one game from each gender, each alignment and each race (not considering conducts nor roles). * The Double Top: Awarded to all players who ascend at least one game from each gender and each alignment (not considering conducts, roles nor races). * The Birdie: Awarded to all players who ascend at least one game from each gender. * The Dilithium Star: Awarded to those who ascend at least one game. * The Platinum Star: Awarded to those who enter the Astral Plane in at least one game. Getting this award makes it known to everyone that you splatted on Astral. * The Gold Star: Awarded to those who enter the Elemental Planes in at least one game. * The Silver Star: Awarded to those who defeat the High Priest of Moloch or otherwise acquire the Amulet of Yendor from him in at least one game. * The Bronze Star: Awarded to those who perform the Invocation Ritual in at least one game. * The Steel Star: Awarded to those who defeat the Wizard of Yendor in at least one game. * The Brass Star: Awarded to those who defeat Vlad the Impaler in at least one game. * The Copper Star: Awarded to those who enter Gehennom in at least one game. * The Zinc Star: Awarded to those who defeat Medusa in at least one game. * The Iron Star: Awarded to those who defeat their Quest Nemesis in at least one game. * The Lead Star: Awarded to those who reach the Mines' End level in at least one game. * The Plastic Star: Awarded to those who complete Sokoban in at least one game. Clan * Best In Show: Awarded to the Clan with the highest score, calculated by summing the values of the various individual trophies gained by the players. Miscellaneous * Killed By A Trickery: Not a trophy in itself, but rather a recognition of administrative error or server malfunction that killed off one's character. External links * /dev/null/nethack Tournament 2006 Announcement * /dev/null/nethack Tournament 2007 Announcement * /dev/null/nethack Tournament 2007 Wrap-up * /dev/null/nethack Tournament 2007 final standings * /dev/null/nethack Tournament 2008 final standings Category:Tournaments Category:Patches